Police training facility up, running

Work is still being done getting the Belton Police Department’s training facility east of IH-35 operational. The Belton Independent School District (BISD) donated a couple of portable buildings and with the help of a grant from the Governor’s Office and they are up and running. The buildings have been put in place with the electricity connected and are in use for training purposes.

Funds from the grant paid for the dirt work and installation of the buildings. It rained a few inches in May of this year and work has been kind of slow as of late. The dirt will eventually be brought to the facility but right now dump trucks are trying to catch up with construction projects that fell behind across the county.

To get to the facility, you go underneath IH-35 off of Central Avenue and across a low water crossing on Nolan Creek. The property was once a City of Belton landfill. The low water crossing is impassable during flooding.

Nolan creek was way up during the recent flooding with no damage to the two buildings donated by BISD. They buildings are for classroom training purposes. Belton recently applied for a grant for the shooting range.

The range is set up for 25 yards and capable for 100 yards. This new grant the city has applied for is for Action Targeting. The system the department is looking into rotates targets from a criminals and civilians. It has a system with 10 different targets that make 90 degree turns used to train officers.

Pricing includes a laptop and software used to run the program. The City of Belton received high marks for the grant application but it is not known at this time if there will be funds available. The targeting system will be used to train officers in decision making. The city needed around 15,000 sq. ft. of dirt for the firing range berm. They have around 12,000 sq. ft on site. The range will have ten firing lanes.

Eventually the Belton Police Department plans to apply for grants for a driving training area and tactical building similar to what train officers to enter buildings looking for suspects. The driving facility isn’t a race track type deal. Training is designed for slow speed type situations.

This facility will be used a various police departments throughout the area. It will be a huge benefit for residents of multiple communities. It will be called the Central Texas Regional Firearms Training Facility.